The present invention relates to conveyor ovens and, more particularly to, an improved conveyor oven having distinct heated air plenums that may be independently controlled to modify the cooking characteristics of the conveyor oven.
Many restaurants use conveyor ovens to prepare food. Conveyor ovens typically cook or heat food by forced convection. A food service professional may place food such as a pizza or a dish of lasagna, for example, on the conveyor and the food is cooked or heated as it is conveyed through heated air within the oven.
Because customers like to have their meals prepared quickly, time is an important factor to consider when cooking food in conveyor ovens. The conveyor speed may be increased to quickly move food through the oven. The heat imparted to the food however, must also be increased or the food will remain cold and not satisfactory to customers. Simply increasing the temperature of the forced air in the oven is not necessarily an effective solution because the food is more likely to burn in high temperature air. Food service professionals may encounter problems when attempting to balance conveyor speed and oven air temperature to quickly and effectively cook or heat food.
Food service professionals encounter additional problems when preparing foods that require specialized cooking. Some pizzas, for example, are generally preferred if they have a crispy crust and a melted cheese topping. Cooking pizzas in this manner requires higher heat on the bottom of the pizza to properly cook the crust and controlled heat on the top of the pizza to melt, but not bun, the cheese topping. Because the conveyor oven has one open cooking chamber, independently controlling temperatures above and below a food may be difficult or impossible in conventional conveyor ovens.
Some conveyor ovens have manual balancing vents that allow food service professionals to adjust the amount of outside air that enters the Cooking chamber of a conveyor oven. Introducing outside air to the cooking chamber reduces the air temperature within the chamber. Restricting outside air to the cooking chamber increases the air temperature within the chamber. Adversely, however, adjusting the conveyor oven to properly cook a particular food is a process of trial and error. Several iterations, which could result in wasted food, may be required to properly adjust the conveyor oven.
Manual balancing vents also have many other problems. If conditions such as the ambient room temperature or the quantity of the food change, the food service professional must make additional adjustments to the vents, which consumes time and, if improperly adjusted, could result in wasted food. Because adjusting the ovens is more an art than a science, training new food service personnel is a costly process. Additionally, the vents are often rudimentary sheet metal plates that selectively cover holes in the oven. The plates do not accurately meter outside air and also become very hot, which may be hazardous to the food service professional. Necessary repeated adjustment of the vents increases the chance of a serious burn.
It would, therefore, be desirable to have an improved conveyor oven that does not improperly cook foods. It would also be desirable to have an improved conveyor oven that does not require difficult or uncertain adjustments to properly cook food. Further, it would be desirable to have an improved conveyor oven that does not require highly trained personnel to properly cook food.
The present invention is an apparatus for distributing air to different regions of a conveyor oven. The apparatus has comprising one or more blowers to distribute the air. A lower plenum is connected to a blower. The lower plenum directs air to the lower side of a conveyor within the oven. An upper plenum is connected to a blower. The upper plenum directs air to the upper side of the conveyor.
In one embodiment of the invention, a method of distributing air to different regions of a conveyor oven has the step of providing one or more blowers. A lower plenum is provided and attached to the one or more blowers. The lower plenum distributes air at the lower portion of a conveyor in a conveyor oven. An upper plenum is provided and attached to the one or more blowers. The upper plenum distributes air at the upper portion of the conveyor. Independently controlling the one or more blowers controls the volume of air that is distributed by the lower plenum and the upper plenum.
In another embodiment of the invention, a system to independently and variably control the temperature profile of a conveyor oven has a conveyor oven that has a cooking chamber. The system also has one or more independently controllable blowers. Plenums attached to the blowers distribute air to the cooking chamber. Independently controllable heating elements heat the air distributed by the plenums.